It's really a hardware/software quandary. My source media is on a SanMP fibre connected jbod with 4 gig fibre. If I connect a Graid 20TB Thunderbolt Drive using USB 3 to the USB 3 card in the MacPro mid 2010 upgraded to 12 core 3.33GHz 24 GB ram OS 10.12.6 Avid estimates the DPX export to take between 6 and 7 hours. It actually came out to about 6 hours and a few minutes. BM Drive speed test on that drive was 254mB/sec write speed. The first 4TB Graid that was newly formatted to HFS+ like all of them are at our company tested BM Disk Speed of 300mB/sec. Given it was empty and newly formatted I figure is why is tested faster. Logic would dictate that Avid exporting to this smaller but faster drive should take no more time. Well Avid estimated it to take 24 hours.
So I'm wondering what is different between the two drives that makes the faster testing drive take so much longer? I've since taken the project home and testing on my similar system although I have more ram so there is no memory pressure showing in Acitivity monitor. On my home system it's estimating 14 hours 40 minutes. This Graid at home is freshly formatted as well.
In earlier Avid versions it would usually take 8 to 9 hours to export the DPX so why is this so different when going to 4TB Graids. Again how can the faster testing drive take longer to export?
I'm wondering if there might be so change in protocol that accounts for the difference. I was wondering if free space or extra space allocation during the export process might be a factor but I don't see how or why. I've tried 3 different 4TB Graids and they all act the same. Initially I used the 20TB Graid with only 400 GB free space and still it got an Avid estimate of 7 hours or less. So free space doesn't seem to be a factor. I'm guessing that this 20TB Graid is much newer and thunderbolt capable so perhaps the chip set or some part of the hardware is making the difference. But then if that's the case why doesn't it get reflected in better drive speed?
Bottom line how can a faster testing drive export slower from Avid DPX.
As far as LUTs that's a separate issue and not a factor because the sequence is already rendered to ProResHQ so there is no additional horsepower being used up by LUT processing.
It's a mystery to me what's really going on under the hood.
I'm going to let my home system crank out on to the 4TB Graid just to see if the actual time is close to the estimate.
---In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, <mactvman@...> wrote :
Hey John,
My testing with DPX exports on the newer software is a speed improvement of 8 to 10 times. In point of fact I have seen DPX exports go slightly faster than equivalent MXF exports.
I recognize you have an issue with LUTs on the new software, but what about baking in your color with an uncompressed MXF on the version of Media Composer you are using, then updating to a current version just to make DPX from your baked in MXF video mix down?
What ever time your MXF Video Mix-Down takes is roughly what the DPX export in the latest versions takes.
I suppose the alternative would be to use Resolve, just to make the DPX frames?
Or, is this more of a hardware question on the speed of the inteface/drives you are using?
Dave Hogan
Burbank, CA
On Apr 15, 2019, at 10:45 AM, John Moore bigfish@... [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:Resending as this hasn't posted after two attempts yesterday..I know the latest Avid versions are better at exporting DPX. I'm on MC 2018.12.1. I have to stay on this because of LUT level/scaling issues when jumpint to 2018.12.2 or 2018.12.3. My last show took approx 7 hours or less to export 10 bit dpx to a GRaid 20 TB. ON mc 8_9_4 similar exports took around 9 hours.
I am on a MacPro Cheesegrater mid 2010 upgraded to 12 core 3.33GHz, 24GB Ram, OS 10.12.6, radeon 5770 1024mB vram.
Today and yesterday I started to export an hour 5 minute sequence to 10 bit dpx. The entire 4K sequence is rendered to ProResHQ. Avid is estimating 24 ish hours. I'm going to a freshly formatted HFS + 4TB Graid. I tried another 4TB Graid that I didn't reformat but it was HFS+ too. It didn't have much free space but it acted the same with Avid estimating the same 24 hours ish.
I then got the 20TB Graid I used on the last show that took 7 hours ish to export. It didn't have much free space but regardless Avid quickly estimated 7 ish hours to export to it. This is a newer Graid so perhaps it has a newer chip set? The kicker is when I run Black Magic Disk Speed test the original 4TB drive freshly formatted has write speed of close to 300 mB/sec but the 20 TB Graid tests at approx 250 mB/sec write. So the 20TB tests slower but it's export estimate according to Avid is 1/3 that of the two 4 TB Graids I tried. WTF???
I have read about the higher capacity drives have more dense media to allow for more storage capacity. I assume that means a lot more data can be written/read from a single track revolution. What I can't rap my head around is why is the 20 TB Graid vastly out performing the 4 TB GRaids when they show a better disk speed test.
I think it is a Sonnet USB 3 card in the mac tower. System report lists it as "PXS3"
I also tried exporting to a USB 3 tower from Areca that has 8 drives and it got an estimate of 15 hours. It's speed test was down around 175 mB/sec write. I don't understand how an 8 drive 28TB raid tower that only had 6TB stored on it under performs both the 4TB and the 20TB Graids. The Areca is probably 3 or more years old but hasn't seen much use.
Is it at all possible that the older Graids and Areca tower have older chip sets that aren't communicating well with my MacPro USB 3.0 card? I have noticed Avid is using up virtually all the memory, close to 20 GB and I'm wondering if more RAM would help in this particular function? Regardless it's the discrepancy between a fresh 4TB Graid sand the 20TB Graid that really confuses me and makes me think there is a chipset/hardware difference causing the difference.
In the past on earlier versions of Avid I've even exported to a single 4TB or 6 TB Hitachi Deskstar drive in a Voyager dock and that still was in the 10 hour range IIRC.
System Report isn't showing me the manufacturer for the USB 3 card in the mac tower just listing it as PXS3. Is there a way to determine what card it is through software reports or do I have to open up the tower. I'm not sure if the card is labeled as to who made it.
Another thought is that as Avid improved the DPX export perhaps something changed that is creating the differing exports estimate times between the 20TB and th 4TB Graids. I have no idea what that would or could be. Anybody got any suggestions?John Moore Barking Trout Productions Studio City, CA bigfish@...
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